Here we need a distinction between the well known consultancy organizations such as Accenture, Bearing Point or Deloitte and freelance consultants or small specialized companies.
Large companies will tend to talk to large organization, so let’s start there. Accenture and similar organizations will tend to give the impression that due to their size, they have specialists for everything. To a certain extent this is true, but it is generally surprising how few specialists for each topic there are and it is also true that there will be virtually no people with in depth knowledge of several products, so be sure to look carefully at the qualifications of the staffing proposed. Of the three main project phases
- requirements definition
- product selection
- implementation
these organizations are well suited to assist in phases 1 (maybe) and 3 (recommended), but should not be involved in phase 2. Large organizations are interested in selling large numbers of consulting days and this is more likely with a product such as SAP than of say Pivotal CRM, so it is not difficult to guess which product will be recommended.
Freelancers and small partnerships may well be involved in phase 2. Do not expect these consultants to know all the CRM Products in detail. They will know however, which suppliers have a good track record in your line of business and will be able to assist you in the selection process. The selection and the responsibility for the selection remains with the buyer. These smaller organizations may will be involved in phase 1 if the number of potential users is not too high.
CRM Auswahl